Obama orders cabinet group to spearhead export drive

Facing pressure to boost jobs to help an economic revival, President Barack Obama unveiled a broad initiative Thursday to pry open foreign markets for US exports, targeting huge emerging economies like China, India and Brazil.

The National Export Initiative plans to double US exports in five years with a comprehensive strategy to identify markets for fast-growing sectors such as environmental goods and services, renewable energy, healthcare and biotechnology, officials said.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, releasing details of the new strategy, said Obama had ordered a Cabinet-level group to oversee the strategy with a vigorous effort to remove trade barriers and make accessible export financing to US firms.

"This initiative will correct an economic blind spot that has allowed other countries to slowly chip away at the United States' international competitiveness," Locke told a National Press Club forum in Washington.

Obama's export drive is aimed at helping create two million jobs in the US, still reeling from double-digit unemployment that threatens to dampen its economic recovery.

The new policy will see the creation of an "export promotion Cabinet" reporting to the president, including leaders of the Commerce, State and Agriculture departments and the office of the US Trade Representative.

The move "represents the first time the United States will have a government-wide export promotion strategy with focused attention from the president and his Cabinet," Locke said.

US exports for the first 11 months of last year amounted to 1.411 trillion dollars, compared with 1.827 trillion dollars for the whole of 2008.

"But while the US is a major exporter, we are underperforming," Locke said. "US exports as a percentage of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) are still well below nearly all of our major economic competitors."

Exports support nearly 10 million jobs in America and almost seven million jobs in manufacturing - and manufacturing jobs pay on average 15 percent more than the average wage.

Obama has vowed to get tougher on countries like China to open up their markets in "reciprocal ways" and ensure that currency rates are not designed to blunt American trade competitiveness.

AFP